The Russians and some members of NASA were uncertain about SpaceX's ability to perform the linkup with the ISS successfully. For a $100 billion asset, that is an understandable concern.

A couple of suggestions. First hire away from the Russians some top guys involved with the Progress cargo vehicle to the ISS and from the Europeans some top guys involved with the ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle(ATV). For the billion dollar cargo supply contract SpaceX has with NASA, it can afford to do that.

Secondly, prior to the ISS docking mission do some rendezvous missions in space with the Dragon spacecraft. Ideally it would be with a vehicle that it could actually dock with. The Progress M-13M cargo vehicle for instance is scheduled to undock from the ISS in a few days. According to the Wikipedia page the undocking is scheduled for the 25th:

The release of a small Russian satellite from the Progress and the de-orbit burn for the Progress is scheduled to occur a day later. Could the undocking or least the de-orbit burn be postponed for enough time for SpaceX to launch the Dragon to be able link up with the Progress vehicle?

In any case, the current plan is not for Dragon to perform the final link-up with ISS under its own power and navigation capabilities but just to get close enough for the robot arm to grapple it and pull it to the station to dock with it. So for this, all the Dragon has to do is demonstrate the ability to get close enough to some orbiting satellite without colliding with it to within a similar distance is it would be to the ISS. It might be able to do this several times with different satellites to further demonstrate this capability.

Bob Clark

_________________Single-stage-to-orbit was already shown possible 50 years ago with the Titan II first stage. Contrary to popular belief, SSTO's in fact are actually easy. Just use the most efficient engines and stages at the same time, and the result will automatically be SSTO.Blog: http://exoscientist.blogspot.com

So the COTS 2/3 demo has been postponed, but that doesn't mean Spacex is doing nothing in between. They have just added a first video showing testfirings of the SuperDraco engine (used for the LES and future propulsive landing):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUUnYgo1-lI

They say

Quote:

the SuperDraco sustained full duration, full thrust firing as well as a series of deep throttling demonstrations.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Floirda - Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is inviting the press for a photo opportunity at the company’s Cape Canaveral launch site (SLC-40) on on Thursday, March 1st.

SpaceX Communications Director Kirstin Brost Grantham stated in a press release that media will be able to take pictures of the 180-foot Falcon 9 rocket as it stands vertical at the launch pad for a wet dress rehearsal.

In December 2008, NASA announced the selection of SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon Spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). The $1.6 billion contract represents a minimum of 12 flights, with an option to order additional missions for a cumulative total contract value of up to $3.1 billion.

SpaceX continues to prepare for our upcoming test flight in which we will attempt to send the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. At the same time we continue making rapid progress in our efforts to prepare the Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts.

You may have read our update on the initial tests of the SuperDraco engines that will power the launch escape system. Recently, SpaceX completed another important milestone – the first NASA Crew Trial, one of two crew tests as part of SpaceX’s work to build a prototype Dragon crew cabin.

For this milestone SpaceX demonstrated that our new crew cabin design will work well for astronauts in both nominal and off-nominal scenarios. It also provided our engineers with the opportunity to gain valuable feedback from both NASA astronauts and industry experts.

The engineering prototype includes seven seats as well as representations of crew accommodations such as lighting, environmental control and life support systems, displays, cargo racks, and other interior systems. During the daylong test, SpaceX and NASA evaluators including four NASA astronauts, participated in human factors assessments which covered entering and exiting Dragon under both normal and contingency cases, as well as reach and visibility evaluations.

The seven seats mount to strong, lightweight supporting structures attached to the pressure vessel walls. Each seat can hold an adult up to 6 feet 5 inches tall, 250 lbs, and has a liner that is custom-fit for the crewmember.

With all seven crewmembers in their seats, Dragon has sufficient interior space for three additional people to stand and assistthe crew with their launch preparations.

And if you ask me, Armstrong might have been the first to walk on the Moon, but Aldrin always seemed to be the more sensible one.

As far as I remember Armstrong is a pilot, while Aldrin has a degree from MIT in some form of engineering, so i totally agree, but still Armstrong's support would have been nice. Also hes (as well as anyone else's) arguments against commercial space are, as far as i can tell, based on ignorance rather than information. :-S

Armstrong seems to be stuck in the 1960's NASA Cold War glory days paradigm to me. It's a classic case of Clarke's First Law: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." It's up to the younger generations to ignore them, push on, and prove them wrong, thus furthering progress...

_________________Say, can you feel the thunder in the air? Just like the moment ’fore it hits – then it’s everywhereWhat is this spell we’re under, do you care? The might to rise above it is now within your sphereMachinae Supremacy – Sid Icarus

The first commercial round-trips to Mars will blast off within 10 years, according to PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, CEO of U.S commercial rocket maker SpaceX.The trip will cost a cool $500,000 (£300,000) - entirely payable through PayPal, no doubt.In 2010, SpaceX became the first commercial company in history to launch a spacecraft into orbit and retrieve it, and has partnered with Nasa to carry out cargo deliveries to the International Space Station.